Chow looked at the display, noting that mission control had synchronized a countdown clock to the time at which they should be able to see the Harmony. The camera would then lock on to the crashed ship and track it as they flew over, providing images from several viewing angles and giving the crew a good idea of where they should land the Altair. On the next pass, their orbital position would be different and provide yet another complete set of viewing angles. To complete their mission, they would leave the command capsule Orion and land on the surface in the Altair lunar surface access module. Then, if all went according to plan, they would bring the Chinese survivors back up in the Altair, dock with the Orion, and successfully complete their mission of mercy by getting everybody back to Earth safely.
“Harmony, this is NASA spacecraft Mercy I. Do you copy?” Bill and Tony kept their eyes focused on the imager screen. Still no sign of the downed vehicle.
“Harmony, this is NASA spacecraft Mercy I about to orbit over your position. Do you copy?”
“Not seeing it, Bill.”
“Keep looking, Tony. It’s there.” Bill tried not to show any pessimism in his voice. “Harmony, this is NASA spacecraft Mercy I. Do you copy?”
At almost the same time that Stetson and Chow spotted the Harmony on the imager, a signal burst over the intercom.
“There it is!” Bill pointed at the screen.
“Mercy I, Mercy I, this is Harmony! It is great to hear your voice!”
Though the surface was in darkness, the camera’s infrared augmentation and automated signal-processing algorithms were able to provide the two men with an image that was clearly identifiable as a manmade spacecraft sitting on a plain. It looked very small. As the camera locked on to the Harmony and tracked it, the image became relatively motionless as their ship flew overhead.
“Harmony, be advised that we are beginning our decent after the next orbital pass and will land as close to you as possible. Do you copy?”
“Copy that, Mercy I. We are eagerly awaiting you. Good luck with your landing procedure. Be aware that there are several crater rims to our north and west. There are boulders as large as automobiles scattered about to our east.”
“Roger that, Harmony. Thanks for the advice. It’s a little dark down there, so if y’all want to turn on the runway lights, it would help.”
“If only we had the power to spare, Mercy I.” Bill wasn’t sure the Chinese taikonaut understood his light levity. Rather than easing the mood, it might have been more unsettling to them. He made a mental note to forgo the jokes for the time being.
“We’re moving quickly out of range, Harmony. We’ll see you on the next orbit.”
“Understood, Mercy I. Harmony out.”
Chow looked at Stetson as they flew out of range and said, “Are we ready?”
“Damn right we’re ready. Let’s go get those people before they freeze to death. We’re supposed to start descent just after the next pass. Suit up!”
On the surface, Hui and her crew were elated that the two American astronauts were directly overhead and looking down upon them. But they were too cold for that elation to help much. It would take a couple of orbits for the Americans to land, and they might not land very close. Help was coming, but it would still be a little while.
They huddled together in the crew compartment watching the power indicator fade to nothingness. With the lander’s last battery drained, and the fuel cells fully depleted, they were now totally dependent upon their spacesuits for warmth. If nothing were to go wrong, they should be able to survive in their suits for another eight hours.
“Americans. How are we supposed to light up the runway when we can’t even heat our suits?” Hui asked Dr. Xu.
“I think that was an attempt to lighten the mood.” Xu smiled at his captain.
“Humor? At a time like this? Americans.” Hui shook her head. “How’s Ming Feng?”
“Hard to say.” The doctor peered through the listless pilot’s faceplate and didn’t look too happy. “He’s still breathing. The breaths are rapid and fitful, but he’s breathing. I don’t know the extent of his injuries, and I fear that even if we get off the Moon, he might not survive the trip back to Earth. Hopefully, we can get him out of his suit and examine him better once the Americans are here.”
“Carried home by the great Americans. Coming to the rescue of those poor, backward Chinese, saving us all and heaping shame and embarrassment on our country.” It was the first time Zhi Feng had spoken in several hours, and the bitterness was impossible to escape.
“Zhi, we’re going home. We’re not going to die! And we got to the Moon ahead of all of them. Our countrymen will be proud—and it is better to come home to our families than to die here. I miss my family, and now that I have a chance to see them, I will not begrudge those who are coming to help us.”
“I will. It is shameful. I will not be able to face my father—he served his country proudly and never had to bow before the Americans or anyone else.”
“Would you rescue the Americans if they asked?” Dr. Xu joined the conversation. “My job is to save lives. Though it grieves me that our moment of glory is now one of humility, I will gladly accept help to save Ming’s life as well as my own.”
“We took China to the Moon!” Hui said, more than a bit frustrated with the younger man. “Besides, we survived! We crash-landed on the Moon—two hundred and forty thousand miles from home—and have survived longer than we would have thought possible. And we owe that survival to you, Zhi. Without your engineering skills at keeping us warm, we would never have made it. You will be a hero!”
“Some hero. I kept us alive long enough for the Americans to get the glory. We would have been better off dead. At least then our countrymen could have come to get our bodies in a Chinese spaceship.”
“You will be quiet now, engineer!” Hui, now clearly angry, asserted her command position. She calmed herself but left the edge to her tone. “Zhi. That is enough. We will not let misplaced pride stand in the way of doing what we must do to survive. We will not serve our country by being buried here. Enough! Need I remind you that I am in command of this mission? We will carry ourselves appropriately with the Americans and represent China with pride. That is an order.”
Zhi did not appear to be impressed or affected by her order. But he did quiet and for that, Hui was grateful.
“It is not long now,” she said. “They will be on the ground within the next three hours or less.” Hui was reviewing the information provided from their last radio contact with Earth. Her colleague had stayed with her on the radio until she had to switch it off due their rapidly fading power. Had their counterpart on Earth not told them precisely when the American ship would arrive, they would not have had the power to communicate with them. She looked out the window and into the darkness.
“There are quite a few boulders out there. I hope they can avoid them on their way in.” The thought of trying to pilot a lander in the lunar darkness terrified her. They had not been equipped for a night landing, and they had certainly not planned on staying until nightfall. She then thought about the American Apollo program and recalled that none of them had landed at night, either. The Apollo missions were carefully choreographed to occur during the day and at locations that would provide direct line-of-sight communication with the Earth. Did their current lander even have landing lights?